Let the Cultural Games Begin: 20+ Reasons to Head to London (Besides the Olympics)

And you thought the Olympics was only about sports. To match the marvel of athleticism that the world will be watching during this summer’s London Olympic Games, Great Britain is putting on a bona fide spectacle of its own—presenting the best art, music, theater, accommodations, and dance that the country has to offer. Here are more than 20 stops to work into your British vacation.

Kicking off a summer of unparalleled athletic and cultural prowess, this weekend, a roster of big-name U.S. acts (Jay-Z, Rihanna, and Jack White) descend on the once-derelict East London grasslands that now make up part of the 2012 Summer Olympic Park. Also keep an eye out for homegrown London talent in the form of Vogue favorites Jessie Ware, Plan B, and Florence + The Machine.

No playwright so defined the English theater as Shakespeare, and no actor more boldly embodies the country’s continuing theatrical dexterity than Simon Russell Beale. Assuming his rightful post as the grand monsieur of the British stage this summer, Russell Beale takes on the role of swaggering yet vulnerable lead in Timon of Athens. An unprecedented collaboration between U.K. and international arts organizations, the festival marks the biggest celebration of Shakespeare ever staged, with thousands of artists coming together for more than 70 productions. Meanwhile, over at the Globe Theatre, the curtain goes up on another lion of the British stage on July 14. Mark Rylance, the Globe’s former artistic director, returns for the first time, playing Machiavellian antagonist in Richard III (opposite dashing up-and-comer-to-watch Johnny Flynn as Lady Anne), and Olivia in Twelfth Night on September 22. shakespearesglobe.com

In an Olympics devoted to global interconnectedness, World Cities 2012 may quite literally be the moving embodiment of the festival’s message. Marking their first-ever collaboration, London’s Sadler’s Wells and the Barbican arts centre will present a monthlong season of ten works (seven of which are U.K. premieres) by the renowned late choreographer Pina Bausch. The pieces, which Bausch began choreographing in 1986 after time spent living in each place, will be performed by her one-of-a-kind dance company, Tanztheater Wuppertal. From Palermo and Hong Kong, to India, Brazil, Los Angeles, Budapest, Istanbul, Santiago, Rome, and Japan, each performance makes for a dynamic travelogue. sadlerswells.com

Britain’s über-artist Damien Hirst proves that the leopard can change his spots in this tour-de-force retrospective of everything from butterfly paintings to sculptures. Opening July 17, the provocative installation artist Tino Seghal launches one of his mysterious, ephemeral pieces, often involving interaction between the public and performers, in the Turbine Hall. Through October 28.tate.org.uk

Any Britons who forget to set their alarms on July 27 will have precious little chance of oversleeping. At 8:12 that morning, all of England will be transformed into a virtual carillon as thousands nationwide, from professional tollers and steeple-keepers to anyone with a cow, door, or bike bell, will take up chimes of every tone to ring in the opening of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Artist Martin Creed may have earned a reputation for creating minimalist pieces (he won the Turner Prize in 2001 for an installation featuring an empty room in which lights flickered on and off at varying intervals) but his Work No. 1197: All the bells in a country rung as quickly and as loudly as possible for three minutes promises to be a mass-participatory performance on an epic, shall we say, Olympic scale. To take part, register at allthebells.com

The Handspring Puppet Company, the award-winning South African team that famously brought Michael Morpurgo’s War Horse to life on the West End and Broadway stage, tackles Ted Hughes’s Crow. Combining puppet designs, skillful manipulation, and dance choreography, the production makes eerily real Hughes’s bleak sequence of poems, inspired by illustrations by American artist Leonard Baskin.handspringpuppet.co.za

With an extra four million visitors showing up in town for a spectacle of the grandest order, what better time and place for a contemplation of emptiness, immaterialism, and the unknown? The Hayward Gallery’s current exhibition “Invisible: Art About the Unseen,” takes up questions first raised by Yves Klein in 1958 when he staged his “architecture of air,” a show in Paris made up of (to the naked eye, anyway) bare white rooms. Works by Klein, Andy Warhol, Yoko Ono,Maurizio Cattelan, and others explore the unseen aspects of visual art, with approaches that range from the fun and absurdist (a virtual maze, invisible ink drawings, a platform on which Warhol once briefly stood), to the haunting (Claes Oldenburg’s underground memorial to JFK) and those that stir the imagination, like Ono’s typewritten instructions for a painting: Set a blank canvas outside overnight; in the morning, it will be colored by the pink light of dawn.southbankcentre.co.uk

Nigerian-born, London-based designer Duro Olowu’s spring collection, which fused traditional African textiles with classic British tailoring, is just one of bright facet of We Face Forward, a joint effort between renowned Manchester galleries and venues to spotlight West Africa’s contemporary artistic and musical talent. With 33 exhibitions from nine different countries, the event features a wide portfolio of work—from El Anatsui’s vibrant hanging sculptures to a performance from Femi Kuti, son of the legendary Afrobeat pioneer, Fela. wefaceforward.org

Always such a pleasure to visit in its Hyde Park setting, the Serpentine has chosen Yoko Ono for its summer exhibition, showing both new and older works. One, #smilesfilm, has been 45 years in the making, envisaged, said the artist in 1967, as “a film which includes a smiling face snap of every single human being in the world.” Through September 9.serpentinegallery.org

Making a glamorous addition to the London hotel scene in time for the Olympics, The Dorset Square Hotel debuted this week as the latest offering from Firmdale, the same group behind the Knightsbridge, the Soho, the Charlotte Street, the Haymarket, and Number 16. In the charming Marylebone neighborhood, within walking distance of West End theaters and Oxford Street shops, the hotel opens its doors in a handsome Regency town house—with 38 rooms that sport bold colors, rich fabrics, and a whimsical mix of contemporary furniture and one-off art objects.For rates, visit: firmdalehotels.com